The Top 7 Regrets of Pastors
Thom S. Rainer

Last year I interviewed more than 20 pastors who had been in ministry for at least 25 years. All of these men were over 55 years old. While a few of them were retired, most were still active in fulltime vocational ministry.

These interviews were simple, consisting of one, open-ended question: “What regrets do you have about the years you have served as a pastor?” Each respondent could provide as many comments as they desired. They could make their answers succinct or feel free to elaborate upon them.

Three pastors had as few as two responses; one offered nine. Most noted three or four regrets. As a researcher, I typically see patterns develop in this type of subjective research. When it concluded, I detected seven definitive patterns and the frequency with which they occurred.

Wish I hadn’t…

Below are the top seven regrets, listed in order of frequency. I received a total of 17 different responses, but only these seven occurred with some degree of repetition. After each regret, I provide a representative direct quote from one of the interviewees.

1. Lack of practical training for local church ministry. A typical comment: “I was not prepared for 80 percent of day-to-day ministry after I graduated from seminary. I wish I had taken time to find some resources or places where I could get practical training. I had to learn in the school of hard knocks, and it was very painful at times.”

2. Overly concerned about critics. “I had this naïve view that a bunch of Christians in a church would always show love toward each other,” one said. “Boy, was I wrong! There are some mean church members out there. My regret is that I spent way too much time and emotional energy dealing with the critics. I think of the hundreds of hours I lost focusing on critics, and it grieves me to this day.”

3. Failure to exercise faith. “At some point in my ministry, I started playing defense and let the status quo become my way of doing church. I was fearful of taking steps of faith, and my leadership and churches suffered as a result. Not only was I too cautious in the churches I served, I was too cautious in my own ministry. I really felt God calling me to plant a church at one point, but I was just too fearful to take that step.”

4. Not enough time with family. “I can’t say that people didn’t warn me. One wise pastor told me I had a mistress. When he saw my anger rising, he told me that my mistress was busyness in my church, and that my family was suffering from neglect. It hurts me to say this, but one of my adult sons is still in rebellion, and I know it is a direct result of my neglect of him when he was young.”

5. Failure to understand basic business and finance issues. “The first time I saw my church’s budget, I thought I was looking at a foreign language. Greek is a lot easier than finance. They sure don’t teach you basic church finance and business at seminary, and I didn’t take the initiative to educate myself. I really felt stupid in so many of the discussions about the budget or other church business issues.”

6. Failure to share ministry. “Let me shoot straight. I had two complexes. The first was the Superman complex. I felt like if ministry was going to be done well, I had to do it. I couldn’t ask or equip someone else to do it. My second complex was ‘conflict avoider.’ I was so afraid that I would get criticized if I didn’t visit Aunt Susie personally when she had an outpatient procedure that I ran myself ragged. In my second church I suffered burnout and ended up resigning.”

7. Failure to make friends. “I know it’s a cliché, but being a pastor can be lonely. I think many pastors get in trouble because we can get so lonely. I wish I had done a better job of seeking out true friends. I know if I had made the effort, there would have been a number of pastors in town that I could have befriended. Sometimes I got so busy doing ‘stuff’ that I didn’t have time to do the things that really matter.”

The above article, “The Top 7 Regrets of Pastors” is written by Thom S. Rainer. The article was excerpted from: www.thomrainer.org web site. December 2013

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.